


Spanning Years And Continent

by lachambre11



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Harry Potter Next Generation, Romance, lycanthropy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-06
Updated: 2013-07-06
Packaged: 2017-12-17 20:26:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/871619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lachambre11/pseuds/lachambre11
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rose and Scorpius' love story wasn't quite an epic tale about love, but rather about ambition, competitiveness, mistakes and...lycanthropy?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spanning Years And Continent

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: I clearly have no knowledge about how grants and researchs teams/thinktanks work. Sorry?

With less than six months to go before the end of his Healer fellowship, Scorpius Malfoy was standing in front of his senior Attending waiting to receive the most important letter of his life. Excitement made him feel light-headed and restless, and the air was so thick with hope and nerves of the residents loitering around the on-call room that the atmosphere was somewhat suffocating.

 

Annette Harris, head of the Experimental Healing Department, Scorpius’ specialty, nodded in his direction as she handed him a magenta bulky envelope containing the response of his fellowship request. His hands were shaking with nerves, and there was the beginning of a stress headache forming just behind his eyes. This was it. This was what he'd wanted for years, this was the moment his dream would come true.

 

Her smile was brief and distant but with an underlying positivity that made him even more nervous. If anything, that smile was an indication that he had every right to consider he'd gotten exactly what he'd worked for all those years at St. Mungo's – that he would be finally able to prove himself to his parents and become just Scorpius, the Healer, instead of only being seen as the Malfoy heir and the spitting image of his former Death Eater father.

 

He took his envelope to the privacy of the potions cabinet he favored on that floor and opened it, his hands sweating a little bit, not that he would ever acknowledge this out loud. He'd poured an impressive amount of energy, a pile of gold and countless hours getting his medical training during the past eight years of his life.

 

He'd studied himself sick, cared for boils on elderly witches, delivered over 60 babies, been vomited on, cursed, hugged and yelled at by numerous patients. But he had made through it all. Scorpius had graduated at the top of his residency class with the best marks in the program. All modesty aside, he was by far the most promising Healer to have walked the halls of St. Mungo's in decades, and it was about time that everybody knew it.

And if he had finally gotten the letter that said he would be able to dedicate himself to the task that, ever since he'd been little, had fascinated and challenged his eager mind, all the sacrifices he'd made, all those sleepless nights and the lack of personal life, it would've all been worth it.

 

If Scorpius had won the Lupine Disease Grant and would be able to work on the cure of Lycanthropy from now on, he would not only have achieved his life's ambition at age twenty-five, he would also be able to finally clear the stigma his family name carried ever since the end of the war.

 

Anxious to find out, Scorpius tore through the wax seal with the Healing Academy's crest. As he read the contents of the letter that shocked him to his core, Scorpius cursed his breath and slid down the wall of the potions cabinet until he sat on the floor, trying very hard not to tear the whole piece of paper into shreds or scream off his frustration.

 

He'd gotten the Lupine Grant, yes, but only partially and under such ridiculous and insulting stipulations that it made him tremble with barely-suppressed rage. He would not be working alone as he had first thought, or with a team of specialized Healers that he personally handpicked, like he'd dared to dream.

 

His name wouldn't be the only name to make history if the cure for Lycanthropy was found with his research, oh no – he would have to share all the glory, the awards and the recognition this discovery would bring with _her_.

 

He couldn’t have that. The mere idea of working with that girl was already giving him an awful stomachache. She was a menace - reckless, unpredictable and had probably only gotten the grant as well only because of her family connections, like she’d gotten everything else in her life. Rose Weasley, the privileged, spoiled child of War Heroes Ronald Weasley, one of the best Aurors in the world, with Hermione Granger-Weasley, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and youngest member of the Wizengamot.

Rose fucking Weasley, the star Chaser and captain of Gryffindor’s Quidditch Team, the one that had wreaked so much havoc during their time at Hogwarts that she’d virtually destroyed her chances to become a Prefect early on their third year. The one that never seemed to be studying, _ever,_ but still managed to beat him at the top 1% of their class every year. He could go on and on – there was a stunning amount of data that could verify the fact that that girl was anything but qualified to take on this important job alongside him.

 

He read that damned letter again; trying to will it to the inexistence the fact that the Board of Magical Healers gave Scorpius the grant under the condition he worked side-by-side with the girl that had been the bane of his existence during his Hogwarts years. He was doomed to work with the one person that had the power of driving him up the wall, of making him lose his ironclad self-control; he would have to do it all with a smile on his face, otherwise, he wouldn't get the fellowship he’d dedicated his entire school career to get.

 

He would have to work with Rose Weasley. The only worst than that was death itself. Scorpius’ only consolation was that he was sure she would hate this just as much as he did, for their mutual dislike was well known and documented through the seven years they had been forced to share a castle in Scotland.

 

If only he could’ve seen her face the moment she realized she would be stuck with him for the next couple of years.

 

*~*

 

" _Miss Rose H. Weasley, As the Board of Magical Maladies and Injuries Healers, we're pleased to inform you that your request for the Lupine Disease Grant has been accepted, under a number of conditions that will be addressed and exhibited latter in this letter. If you are noncompliant or otherwise unable to work under such conditions, your grant will be forfeited effectively immediately and given to another applicant. As of the September 24th, you will be working alongside with Healer S. Malfoy for the next four years, the duration of the Lupine Disease Grant. You are both to share your previously acquired experience and research in the field. A team of expert Healers, Potioneers and Magizoologists will be appointed and selected to aid you in your task, and you are expected to work as a cohesive team under the advisement of Healer Stewart Raymond..."_

 

" _Fuuuuck_!" Rose screeched, punching her pillow in frustration. "Goddamned sodding bloody buggering fuck!" She furiously moved on from punishing her undeserving pillow to hitting her unsuspecting mattress with all the force she could muster, which was actually an impressive amount.  

 

"What in the name of Merlin’s saggy left nut is happening here?" Her cousin Al was standing breathless at the door of her room, his sheets wrapped precariously around his waist. Rose groaned and kicked the foot of her bed, howling in pain when she hurt her foot instead of relieving her frustration.

 

"That stupid, pale-as-death, maggot!" she informed Al between forceful breaths, "He _stole_ my grant!" When Al did nothing but stare blankly back at her, Rose exploded. "My Lupine Disease Grant, Al! That stuck-up, prissy little know-it-all git stole it, and now I have to share it with him! With _him_!" Al continued to stare unblinkingly at his cousin as if she were a madwoman.

 

"Well, aren't you going to say anything?"

 

"Colour me unsurprised?" He said with a smiled. Rose growled and tried to hit him, but Al had seen it coming and easily dodged her punch.

 

"Look, Rosie, this isn't exactly the first 'Malfoy is a life-ruining arse' conversation we've ever had, and I'm guessing it won't be the last."  Then he motioned to his attire, his smile growing even wider while Rose blushed beet-red and covered her face with her hands. "And as you can see, I was otherwise...pre-occupied. So when you're over being, well, you, maybe we can have this conversation. It can wait, while, on the other hand, Hillary and I can't. So I'm going to go, and you keep on doing whatever it was that you were doing, but try not to curse so loud, okay? It distracts me." With a loud pop, Al Apparated back to his room, and Rose was left to stare at the place in which he had previously been standing.

 

 _Al is just thinking with his most excitable parts_ , she thought, a little but calmer. _But I'll be damned if I back down from the grant because of the slimy git._

 

She wouldn't be called Rose Weasley if she'd let that Malfoy snob get in her way again, like he tried to for seven years while they were at Hogwarts. And if Malfoy thought otherwise, he had another thing coming.

 

*~*

 

"Congratulations, fellow Researchers," said the plumpest man Scorpius had ever seen. He was standing with another five competent-looking Wizards and Witches in the black marbled hall of St. Louise’s Memorial, situated in the heart of Central London. "Today is the first of many of the best days of your life. I’m Healer Stewart Raymond, and I'll be your advisor during the course of your grant."

 

"Here at St. Louise’s we're like a family, so there's no need to call me Healer Raymond or anything formal as that. We'll be working together for the next four years, so feel free to call me Healer Stu, or merely Stu." He winked, and Scorpius wrinkled his nose. He liked the man well enough, he supposed, but he was expecting a commanding, rigorous adviser. Definitely not someone like Healer Raymond.

 

"Aw, hell," a feminine voice complained, stumbling into the room with one of her shoes in her hand and a tangle of red hair spilling all over her face. With a pang, Scorpius recognized Rose Weasley. He'd hoped, when he'd failed to spot her there, that she'd backed down from the grant. But that hair was unmistakable, it wouldn't go amiss anywhere. It was most certainly Weasley, and he should’ve expected her to be late. This was usually her M.O. back at school as well.

 

"I'm sorry, Stu," she said, hopping her way to the group, still semi-barefoot. "My alarm didn't go off, and my Kneazle was in one of his crazy moods, plus Al's lady friend was hogging the shower, so I –" She knocked into a dark-haired bloke, almost bringing them both down, barely managing to avoid collision with a blond girl as well. She smiled gratefully at the guy, William Mackenzie, who smiled back, already pathetically smitten by Rose.

 

Scorpius scoffed – she acted exactly as he'd remembered: irresponsible, filled with excuses and entitlement.

 

She turned around, sizing him up for a couple of tense minutes. He tried not to show how much Weasley's cold, persistent stare affected him, but he was failing miserably. Sensing the tension in the room, everyone avidly watched them until Healer Raymond cleared his throat to catch their attention.

 

"As I was saying, we at St. Louise’s like to work in a familiar, healthy environment..." Scorpius tuned out Healer Raymond's words, focusing his sole attention on Weasley. The Lupine Disease Grant appointed them as the heads of this research group, so they would be the ones calling the shots over the next four years, under Raymond’s advisement.

 

Would they be able to work efficiently? Scorpius had no doubt about it. But would they be able to work peacefully? Judging by Rose Weasley's hatred-filled glare and his own brand of intense dislike of her burning through his veins, Scorpius could only speculate they would do anything but.

 

It was going to be a rough couple of years.

 

*~*

 

_Traipsing Trolls, Cobblestone Alley, Six Months Later_

 

Rose sighed to herself, thinking lovingly of the dark-purple potion simmering lightly in the cauldron on her desk at St. Louise Memorial. Six months into this research and she was already completely exhausted; nine of pounds lighter and in desperate need of sleep, but tonight, there would be a celebration.

 

William had suggested a night of pub-hopping, but Fiona had simply pointed out they would be due back at the hospital in less than twenty-four hours, which put a bit of a damper on things. It was Malfoy, out of all people, who suggested they should head down to the Traipsing Trolls on Cobblestone Alley, an area filled with pubs and restaurants brimming with young, beautiful people.

 

Who knew that little Mister-Know-It-All ever heard of a place like this?

 

Rose smiled at the glass of Butterbeer that Ellie placed under her nose and gratefully drained it before asking for another one. Her friend smiled and motioned to Thomas and Theo, who were deep in conversation with Malfoy.

 

After spending the first couple of days in silence and making absolutely no progress whatsoever in their research, Rose and Scorpius had sat down to talk about their previous work in their fields – healing and potion-making.

 

Despite what Malfoy seemed to think, Rose had worked her arse off to become the youngest Head of the Most Extraordinary Society of Potioneers at the early age of twenty-one. She was also well known for her part in discovering the cause and cure of Scrofungulus. She'd published widely quoted articles on the use of Shrivelfig to create a vaccine for the Dragon Pox, and she'd been working as the Head Potioneer of St. Louise’s Memorial for the past two years.

 

She also hated to admit it, but Malfoy, as well as being one of the most-promising Healers in England, had helped create a protocol to deal with the Spattergroit cases and specialized with transmittable diseases, writing successful articles and participating in several Vanishing Sickness experiments with well-known Healers from all over the world.

 

They couldn’t stand each other, but they were both dead-set on finding the cure for Lycanthropy, and after exchanging a couple of harsh jabs about their methods, they had come to a silent understanding – they would stay out of each other's way, communicate their experiments via notes and reports, talk only on staff meetings, and things would progress wonderfully.

 

So far, apart from some random accidents, they were doing just fine. Rose usually worked with the group she'd come to consider "her fellows" – William Mackenzie, an Irish Healer, Fiona Jackson, another Potioneer who Rose had been in contact with before the experiment, and Ellie Girard, a talented French Healer.

 

Scorpius usuaylly worked with Thomas and Theo O'Neal, the team's twin Potioneers, and Elizabeth Armstrong, a quiet Magizoologist who was one of the protégés of Rose's Aunt, Luna Scamander.

 

And tonight they were celebrating. They had survived the first six months of research, a crucial time for every experiment. This was a victory in and of itself, Rose thought. Even though Scorpius was methodical, controlling and clearly anal-retentive in a maddening way that made her want to tear her hair out, they had made it.

 

After six tiring months consisting of long hours, failed experiments, several blown-up phials resulting in singed eyebrows and burnt hair, as well as that one time when a potion had turned everyone's complexion slightly yellow for a week, they finally had a new and improved batch of Wolfsbane available for subject testing. A Wolfsbane potion that, if proved effective, could help them a little further along the path to ridding the world of Lycanthropy once and for all.

 

Rose downed three more glasses of Butterbeer when William suggested buying the whole group a round of Ogden’s Finest. This drink she sipped slowly, enjoying the taste and quality of it while offering everyone a lazy smile.

 

She felt decadent and elated that night, worthy of having some careless fun and indulging in some alcohol after working herself to the bone. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Ellie and Theo dancing slowly under the dimmed lights while Thomas tried to convince a tightly wound Fiona to do the same.

 

It was nice, she thought, seeing the whole team come together like this. Rose smiled to herself and accepted William's offer to refill her glass. From where she was sitting, she could see Elizabeth and Malfoy talking. Apparently something the girl had said was funny, because Malfoy was smiling wide.

 

Smiling!

 

Rose couldn't recall the last time she'd seen Malfoy do that, if she’d ever seen it at all. Back at Hogwarts, they had constantly been at each other's throats, competing for the top marks, the professor's favour, the Head badge or whatever nonsense they decided to butt heads over it. She had certainly never seen Malfoy do anything other than smirk obnoxiously, let alone smile. She’d also never seen him with friends around school, let alone a girlfriend. Not that she had been tracking his personal life or something. It was that he'd been such a stuck-up little brown-nosed twit back in the day that she'd wondered if some girl would ever fall for his righteous act or tried to befriend someone as unpleasant as him.  

 

Granted, some people may have said there was some sort of attraction to him – in the confident way he carried himself, or how he always worked himself ragged to find answers to questions that nobody had ever thought of before. His eyes, a clear hazel, weren’t that bad as well - under a certain light, they lighted up and made him look almost kind... Not that Rose saw or agreed with any of those traits, she was merely pointing them out as an impartial observer.

 

Rose herself had never saw any spark of anything but smugness and self-righteousness in the guy. But Elizabeth must’ve certainly found something positive in Malfoy, considering the way she was leaning towards him and the hand she'd just put on his leg. It was almost embarrassing, the way she was obviously interest in him. While Rose had nothing against the girl, she knew Elizabeth was probably wasting her time. Malfoy didn’t strike her as the kind of guy who would go for obvious or easy, if Rose thought about what Malfoy would want in a partner. Not that she did. Ever.

 

Feeling a sudden large lump forming in her throat at the sight, Rose forced herself to look back at William when he returned with her drink, and away from the spectacle that was Malfoy and Elizabeth. Chugging the whole thing down and feeling the burn wash the lump away, Rose stood up, put her hands on William shoulders and smiled broadly at him, feeling triumph at the way he light up.

 

"Come and dance," she said, before losing herself to the music.

 

Completely charmed, Will followed her blindly, as many boys had done before.

 

*~*

 

He could watch her from where he was sitting. She'd always been larger than life, with a cutting tongue and angelic smile. Even though they’d never gotten along, he could always admit why so many boys worshipped the ground she walked on: she was objectively pretty, with a lovely bone structure, pale skin, golden freckles littering her face and body, and big, liquid brown eyes framed by the wildest, untamed hair he’d ever seen – all curls and explosive red.

 

The light of the pub brought out all her best features as well: her pale skin was now pleasantly flushed by the whisky, her petite figure moved to some hit song with abandon, and those eyes stood out, framed by thick lashes. Ok, so maybe he’d had way too much to drink, because here he was, waxing poetic about the girl he could barely hold a  civil five minute conversations with. But yes, she was breathtaking as well as annoying, spoiled, and completely infuriating.

 

Merlin, he wanted her nearly as much as he hated her. Weasley had just waltzed back into his life, inquisitive and demanding, always commanding the attention, always so sure of her place in the world. He hated how she'd never had to prove herself, how she glided through everything when he'd had to work twice as hard as her to earn it. He hated how with one look she could reduce him to the stuttering, timid child he was back at Hogwarts.

 

He hated how she danced, sensual and slowly, her body having an innate knowledge of rhythm, her feet light as if they barely touched the floor, her hips swaying and inviting. He hated how she danced like that for any other man but him, and he hated how much control she had over his emotions as well.

 

Elizabeth smiled a little bit more and her hand hitched a little bit higher on his thigh, but he could barely feel it, could barely care, not when Rose was dancing with that fool Mackenzie, letting him touch her as if he’d any right to, letting him devour her with his eyes as if he'd seen her naked.

 

Scorpius couldn't stand watching this anymore. He got up, leaving a flustered Elizabeth behind, and walked up to Rose. She didn't acknowledge his presence; she never did, not until the last possible moment.

 

But he felt her shiver when his body brushed against hers on the dance floor, saw the goosebumps erupt on her arms when his mouth touched that patch of exposed skin just besides her earlobe.

 

"You're making a fool of yourself," he whispered, and she stilled immediately, as if she’d been eletrocuted. "I'm taking you home."

 

Before she could protest, he grabbed her hand and Apparated them out of the Traipsing Trolls, leaving a bewildered William and Elizabeth behind.

 

*~*

 

He could feel her simmering anger the moment they landed on her doorstep, and she roughly yanked her hand away from his. Scorpius instinctively took a step away from her, his back connecting painfully with her door.

 

"What the hell?" She was snarling at him, her voice low and vicious and all the more dangerous. "For fucks sake, what were you thinking, Malfoy? Who gave you the right to take me anywhere? And how do you know where I live?"

 

"I have your forward address on a file in St. Louise's," he said, blushing. "And I was thinking that you clearly had too much to drink, Weasley. I was being a gentleman and bringing you home safely. That's not something you could quite count on Mackenzie to do, not from the way he was staring at you."

 

"Being a _gentleman_?" Her voice elevated a few octaves, and Scorpius winced. "You were being an arsehole! I don’t know what your damage is, Malfoy, but you’re not my keeper. You don’t get to tell me when I’ve had enough to drink, and you don’t get to take me anywhere against my will.”

 

Her fisted hand connected with his chest, but there was no force behind her punch, at least not enough to seriously hurt him. Having already seen her punch someone else before, Scorpius knew the kind of damage she could’ve inflicted had Rose really wanted to, so he was grateful for the reprieve. 

 

He held her fisted hand there, covering with his, smoothing its fingers open, while she stared at him, flabbergasted. He was in the wrong, and he knew it. Scorpius didn’t knew or didn’t care to find out what came over him in that moment, but he couldn’t stand seeing her dance like that with Will anymore.

 

"I’m sorry, I truly am. I know I’d no right to just Apparate us out of there, but I just didn't want to you to do anything you would regret later, Weasley."

 

"Like what?" She asked, her voice sounded more subdued, the fight clearly far from gone from her eyes. "Like shagging William senseless in the back room of the pub?"

 

He clenched his jaw, the idea of it making him sick. "Something like that," he admitted, albeit a little bit haughtily.

 

"If I want to shag a bloke, Malfoy, what is it to you?” and there was a challenge clearly written in her eyes.  “Why do you care? You certainly haven’t before."

 

And there it was, the question he had been asking himself for the past six months. Why should he care if she flirted shamelessly with all the blokes in their research team? Why should he care if she made a fool of herself in a crowded pub, rubbing up against a moronic, arrogant, self-involved arse – the type of guys she seemed to usually go for – if she wanted to? Why should he care?

 

Why did he care?

 

But Scorpius didn't fancy going down that road, not right now, maybe ever. He was afraid that once he started to ask those questions, he would inevitably come up with the right answers, and he wasn't quite sure he wanted to know them.

 

"I don't care at all," he said, "except when you try to screw around with someone from our research team. I can't allow it to happen. It would interfere with our work and we can't afford that."

 

"No we can't, can we?" There was bitterness there, in the way she’d said this, in the way she was looking him dead in the eye, completely sober. "Though I suppose it’s okay for you to shag around with one of them, isn't it?"

 

"I don't understand what–"

 

"Elizabeth!" Rose roared. "I saw you with Elizabeth, you liar!"

 

"You're jealous?!" He couldn’t feel more shocked if he tried. Scorpius didn’t even knew she had noticed the way the Magizoologist was flirting with him.

 

"No, I'm not!" _The nerve of him_ , she thought.

 

"Yes, you are!"

 

The smug smirk on his face was almost too much for her to bear.

 

"No, I'm not, stop saying that!"

 

She punched him again in the chest, this time meaning it, and Scorpius doubled over to protect himself. "Nothing happened between Elizabeth and me," he said, seriously this time, but Rose didn't believe him. She had seen it with her own eyes – Scorpius' soft smile, Elizabeth's inviting posture, her hand on his leg...

 

"You're lying," she spat, crossing her arms and sticking her chin out in a challenge. "What you did back there wasn't out of the goodness of your heart, or because you wanted to protect my reputation. I don't think you have a heart.” But he did, and it stopped hammering wildly in his chest once she started down that path.  “I think you were only looking out for yourself, as usual. You're a Malfoy. You're a Slytherin. There isn't a selfless bone in your body. You’re incapable of it. You're just like the rest of your family."

 

He refused to have her let the last words, especially ones like these.

 

"And you don't have a reputation to uphold," he said, wanting to hurt her just as much as she'd hurt him. "After all, even back at Hogwarts you weren't exactly known for your rigid morals were you, _Rosie_?"

 

She wanted to kill him in that moment. No, she wanted to use the Cruciatus and only then murder him. But she could feel the tears coming, and she didn't want to break down, especially in front of him. Rose would rather die than give him the satisfaction of knowing that he'd made her cry, made her feel like utter shite.

 

"We're done here," she spat and pushed him out of the way, walked into her flat and closed the door in his face. He stared at it for a long time, trying to figure out how and where had it all gone wrong, and if there was still a chance to fix it.  And even though he knew she must’ve known he was still standing there, she still didn’t open the door. He didn’t knock, and eventually left.

 

*~*

 

It was definitely weird, Rose thought, seeing Scorpius again after their, for lack of a better word, argument. At first, she'd thought of cutting work and avoiding him altogether. But Al had pointed out that she could lose the grant, her work, and the months she'd dedicated to it because of a stupid fight with a guy she said she couldn't care less about. Deep down, Rose felt that he was right.

 

Why should she care about Scorpius' opinion of her? Why did it bother her so much that on top of everything else he resented her about, he also thought she was loose as well? Why couldn't she get his stupid face and his stupid words out of her mind? Why couldn’t her eyes stop filling with tears whenever she though about the things he had said, or wonder why he’d stayed outside her flat for over an hour after she had told him they were finished?

 

The next Monday after the incident, Malfoy had stayed cleared of her, and she was thankful for that. She didn’t know what she would’ve done had he approached her at the facilities. Maybe the Bat Bogey Hex her aunt Ginny had taught her back in the fourth year.

 

The team seemed to notice the tension between them and did their best to keep things working as if nothing had happened. By Tuesday, William had seemed to get over what happened and even started to flirt with her again. At first, his advances had flattered Rose, but now they merely served to annoy her.

By Wednesday, Scorpius nodded in her direction when she entered the laboratory. Rose pretended not to notice and went to work at her station, occasionally making small talk about Ellie's upcoming birthday with Fiona.

 

She stayed the entire night and left early on Thursday, just as Scorpius was getting in. Even though she had felt his staring eyes on her retreating back, she walked away from St. Louise's to the Apparation point without a second glance.

 

Friday, his hand had touched hers when he'd passed a bag of Staghorns around the group, suggesting they should add them to their improved batch of Wolfsbane. Even though the touch was accidental, Rose and Scorpius had both recoiled as if slapped. On Saturday, it wasn't his weekend shift at the lab and for the first time since the start of this experiment, Malfoy actually stayed away and didn’t put in an appearance.

 

The atmosphere that weekend felt a hundred times lighter to Rose. She laughed, made some jokes, and even indulged William by flirting back a little and acting coy when he'd suggested they should get together sometime and talk over some Butterbeer. On Sunday, Rose declined the longstanding invitation to The Burrow’s traditional lunch and opted to stay home and think about this mess.

 

Yes, it bothered her when people thought she would sleep with any bloke that looked in her direction. Though Rose loved to flirt and she had had a healthy number of boyfriends, she hadn't shagged most of them. She was by no means shy, but she knew that most of the guys that had been interested in her only wanted to get into the War Heroes' daughter's knickers, and it was more than enough to put a damper on things.

 

She was interesting enough and pretty enough, but sex only happened when there was something else there – affection, desire, companionship. The way her parents loved each other taught her that, amongst other things, the best kind of intimacy came from a place of love and respect.

She had only been with three guys, and that wasn't something to be embarrassed of, in her book. So Rose decided that she would be long dead before she would let Scorpius Malfoy out of all people make her feel bad about herself.

 

The next Monday, she walked in with her head held high and asked William out on a date. Seeing Scorpius' appalled face as he heard the gossip gave her a strange sort of satisfaction that made her smile throughout the whole day.

 

Maybe she didn’t have a noble reason to go out with Will other than to piss Malfoy off. But it wouldn’t go far. One date, and that was it. What harm could’ve come out of it? It’s not like she would marry the bloke or anything.

 

*~*

 

_Eighteen Months Later_

 

Two years, he thought. Two whole years, half of the time that the Lupine Disease Grant had given them had gone by, and they'd gotten virtually nowhere.

 

Well, nowhere wasn't entirely true. They had managed to work on a stronger and less foul batch of Wolfsbane, and had developed an experimental antidote as well. It had been discovered that the longer you took the Wolfsbane, the tamer the beneficiary effects were until they were non-existent.

 

They had removed that side effect of the potion and added a taste much more agreeable to the palate. But that wasn’t the point of their grant. They had also begun developing a gradual antidote that was supposed to slow down the number of transformations until they stopped completely, but so far, they'd had no success in that area. That was as far as they had gotten, and it was far from where Scorpius had expected them to be at this point of their research.

 

He was, quite frankly, disappointed with himself.

The dream – Scorpius' dream – of finding a cure for Lycanthropy was as elusive as it had been a year before. The questions were already starting. When would they get a breakthrough? Would they get one at all? And what if they didn't? What if he couldn't? What if everyone was right – what if he wasn't good enough? Smart enough? What if he'd missed something, something vital that –

 

"Stop," Rose said as she sat down next to him, munching on a tuna sandwich.

 

"Stop what?"

 

"Stop doing what you're doing right now." The bags under her eyes stood out from this close, and it was apparent she’d dropped some weight as well. "Stop over-analyzing, over-thinking it. You didn't do anything wrong," she said and patted him on the back a little bit.

 

"How do you know?" He was weary, and he felt like he couldn't be sure of anything anymore. He wondered why he had been so sure before that he'd be able to do this, why he’d never considered that maybe he could fail.

 

"I know it because I know you. I know how your mind works, and that you act so incredibly secure, but still has those nagging doubts in the back of your head."

 

The assertion was a testament to how far they'd come in the past two years. _It’s nice to feel like we’re friends_ , he thought, _especially after the horrible fight they'd had over a year ago_.

 

Water under a very tall bridge, she'd said to him eight months ago, when he'd stammered and blushed his way through an apology. And that was that.

 

"You work more than anyone else here. You haven't lost your focus, and you can't lose hope now. We will find the cure."

 

"How can you be so sure?" He had been once, but now everything felt muddled and heavy. She shrugged, and offered him a small, watery smile.

 

"Some days, it's very hard," she admitted, and he could see once again just how much their work had cost her. "When something happens to one of the volunteer subjects, like it did with Michelle."

 

Michelle Grayson, the seventeen-year-old werewolf they had been testing the antidote on, had died two weeks ago of heart failure, one of the many possible complications of the antidote they were developing.

 

She had not been the first of their subjects to go, but her loss that hit the team the hardest. They had fallen in love with Michelle, with her inquisitive mind and contagious laugh. They’d treated her as one of their own, and taught her whatever she wanted about the various subjects they’d specialized with.

 

It was quick and painless. She hadn’t suffered. But Scorpius could still see little reminders of her everywhere on the laboratory – from the picture on them dressed up as The Weird Sisters for Halloween, proudly displayed on Rose’s desk, from the orange robes they wore that she loved to much because she said it made her think of her pet Kneazle back home, in Scotland.

 

"But do you know what I do when things get so difficult it gets hard to breathe in here?" Scorpius shook his head, and Rose smiled softly. "I fly."

 

It took a moment for her words to sink in and start making sense to him. "You fly?" He repeated, because he thought he might've heard her wrong.

 

"I fly," she repeated, with the softest look in her eyes. “Let me show you.”

 

When he nodded, she took him by the hand and Apparated them both out of the hospital. When Scorpius opened his eyes again, they were standing in the middle of a relatively unkempt, open field, with a pond and a decrepit house that seemed to be only standing only with the aid of hope and dreams.

 

"This is The Burrow," she said, but she didn't let go of his hand, "the most magical place on Earth."

 

*~*

 

Two hours later, he believed completely in the words that had at first sounded fanciful and a little bit deranged – there should be nothing special about a small propriety in the middle of nowhere with more than one too many garden gnomes. But he had been proven sorely wrong - like he had been many times before, almost always by Rose Weasley.

 

Scorpius was usually furious about it, but this time, however, he wasn't the slightest bit bothered. There was some sort of weird magic in that place, nothing like the kind they learned about it at Hogwarts.

 

Rose's laughter was louder and truer, the cooking tasted better (he'd fallen in love with the apple tart). Her Grandma was certainly warmer, and her Grandpa was definitely kinder. Scorpius found himself relaxing, the tension rolling off his shoulders, and before he knew it he found himself laughing right along with Rosie and her family. That was certainly a first.

 

She had taken him to her Grandpa's shed and shown him all kinds of Muggle objects Mr. Weasley liked to mess around with. They took turns trying to guess each object's name and use, and even though they knew they were probably wrong, they had fun anyway, competing genially.

 

This, too, had changed between them. Instead of finding ways to get one own up on each other, they had figured out a system and worked better together. Now they were competing against Lycanthropy, and even when they tried to best each other it was no longer meant to be hurtful, nor were they always trying to prove who was better. As the day died down, Rose had decided that they should fly around the pond before it got too dark.

 

She'd given him an old Nimbus to ride and taken off on a Firebolt. "This was what you meant by 'fly'?" He'd yelled at her retreating figure, completely paralyzed. "I don't do broomsticks, Weasley!"

 

But she'd just laughed from somewhere above his head as he tried to think of it as a challenge, not as an excellent opportunity to plummet to his death. At first it had been terrifying. Then Scorpius had started to get what the hype about Quidditich was all about, back at Hogwarts.

 

Flying was liberating, in a crazy, hazardous kind of way. Even though he wasn't sure he liked it, he couldn't back down, not when Rose challenged him to go up farther, to fly faster, and to chase her around her Grandparents' backyard until he nearly crashed into a tree.

 

At the end of the day, Scorpius was sweaty and sore in places he'd never known existed before. But the smile never left his face, even for the next couple of days, and the newly determined set of his shoulders gave the whole group of Researchers a new life. Within six weeks, the team had discovered that the Yew's red berries worked well with their antidote and diminished the probability of the subject's immune system crashing and rejecting the potion, as had happened to some of the test subjects before.

 

It was a victory, albeit a small one, but a victory nonetheless.

 

One he owed it to Rose Weasley. And for the first time, the knowledge of it didn’t put a sour taste on his mouth.  Maybe they were finally growing up after all.

 

*~*

 

_Eleven Months Later_

Rose could tell that William was thinking about marriage. He'd been secretive for weeks, hiding pieces of paper that looked like jewelers pamphlets when she walked into the room and whispering gravely with Theo, who had recently proposed to Fiona, whenever he thought she wasn’t looking.

 

She felt like there was something seriously wrong with her. She should've been feeling excited, happy. She should've been snooping around his drawers, looking for some clue. She should've been dreaming about her wedding dress.

 

But Rose didn't want any of those things. The excitement never came. All she could think about was curing Lycanthropy. Well, eighty percent of the time. She dreamed of the recognition, the seminars they would give around the world and the books that would be written about it.

 

She mostly thought about the Michelle's and Remus Lupin's around the world that went through such horrible pain and trauma once a month, for the duration of their lives, something no one should have ever have to endure.

 

And when she wasn't thinking about a cure, she worried about her parents – her Mum, who was always working. Her Dad, who needed glasses, but refused to wear them. She worried about Hugo, who was away training to be an Auror.

 

She thought about her numerous cousins, her grandparents, her aunts and uncles, her whole extended family... And maybe sometimes, she thought about Scorpius. She thought of things to say to make him laugh. She thought of herbs she hadn't yet considered for their antidote, anything that could help him find a definitive antidote. She thought about the way his eyes lit up when he talked about Healing, or the latest books he'd read, or whenever she brought him a piece of Grandma Weasley's apple tart.

 

She thought about his hands, how they looked gentle yet firm, always certain of their purpose, how his hair fell in his eyes when he forgot to trim it (which happened quite often). Lastly, she thought to herself about her problem with William's impending proposal. Why wasn't she excited about getting engaged?

 

Why didn't the thought of spending the rest of her life with the person that loved her give her butterflies, make her feel as if she could hardly wait? Rose couldn't find a suitable answer, and sometimes she wondered if she was asking all the wrong questions. But when William finally asked, she still said yes.

 

*~*

 

_Seven Months Later_

 

Scorpius knew that Rose was making a mistake. William was by no means the man that a girl like her was supposed to spend the rest of her life with, and he could feel it in his bones.

 

Scorpius could easily say that he had actually gotten to know Rose by now, now that they were friendly – friends, even. He _knew_ her, understood that she had the kind of intellect that needed to be challenged; otherwise she would be easily bored. It’s not that he thought Mackenzie was unintelligent – Scorpius wouldn't have a dim-witted Healer on his team. But the man just wasn't at all interesting.

 

The signs were all there. Mackenzie didn't make Rose laugh until she snorted a little, something hated to do, but Scorpius found it endearing. The bloke wouldn't know an intelligent quip if it bit him in the arse, and his conversations with Rose were generally centered around either their research or his life ambitions. Mackenzie had never once asked her about her ambitions, as far as he could tell.

 

But Scorpius, he knew all of them. He knew that Rose wanted to become an internationally recognized Potioneer, that she wanted three children and four Kneazles. Now that they were friends, she had told him how she wanted to grow old with someone, just like her grandparents had, like her parents were doing.

Scorpius knew all of this, and he could swear, de factum, that Mackenzie and Rose were anything but well suited for each other. The problem was, she didn't think so. He'd told her his reasoning, given her plenty of reasons not to marry the bloke, but she was so determined to go through with it that there was no convincing her. Scorpius felt like there was an imaginary clock ticking above his head, saying things like four months until she marries him, or you still have time to convince her to call it off, and everything in between.

 

He tried to concentrate on his work, he really did, but nothing could distract him from the fact that Rose was wearing a ring on her finger and was about to become Mrs. Mackenzie. The name suited her as well as the groom – that is to say, not at all. But for some reason, Rose refused to see this, and Scorpius felt like she was slipping away, like precious time was slipping through his fingers.

 

And for all of his supposed brilliance, he couldn’t find out how to stop it, any of it.

 

*~*

 

Stu showed up at the lab one afternoon to hand out assignments. It was the first one the group had received in over three years in the program, and everyone was shocked to its core. Usually the Senior Advisor stayed away from their lab, only coming once in a while to check up on things, or during staff meetings.

 

"The Board isn't happy with the results of this program,” was the reasoning behind the sudden visit and assignment. “They seem to think that, from the investment that has been made in it, the results are sufferable, to put it mildly. While I personally don't feel this way, we have to play by their rules if we want to at least finish the term of this research grant, let alone asking for an extension."

 

"Consider an exchange of sorts. They’re relocating the team to other locations around the world, so you can observe and learn from seasoned researchers and their teams. Hopefully, we can all pick up something from them that can help further things along. You'll be going in pairs to some parts of the world, and you're expected to come back with a lot of notes, new ideas and maybe steps away from the cure."

 

 _But no pressure or anything_ , Rose thought.

 

"Now, we can all think of this task as impossible, or we can try to remain positive. I'd like to think that if I taught something to any of you; it was the power of the positive-thinking." He smiled, and Scorpius has to control the urge to roll his eyes. After all these years, he'd grow fond of Healer Raymond, enough to accept and even be somewhat fond of what Rose called "Stu-isms".

 

"Think of it as a present instead of an ultimatum," Stu continued with an ever-present smile, always the one to think of the glass as half-full. "Now go and make the most of it, team, and always remember: giving your best is the most important thing you can do, okay?"

 

And with that, he winked and left the room. Opening her envelope, Rose saw that she'd been assigned to Bulgaria. She was lucky – they had one of the most well respected research facilities, and as of late, been focusing on the search for Lycanthropy's cure with a team of brilliant eastern-Europeans researchers.

 

When she realized Scorpius was looking at her with curiosity, Rose smiled, doing a little victory dance. "Bulgaria," she explained, and Scorpius shook his head in disbelief. "Me too," he'd said, and Rose was torn between delight and a sense of foreboding that told her that nothing good would come out of this trip.

 

If only she knew.

 

*~*

 

_Vratsa, Bulgaria, three months later_

They had spent five weeks in Sofia with the group of Researchers leaded by the world-famous Raina Kristeva. Together, they'd worked out a way to incorporate Henbane into the Wolfsbane in order to prevent infection and accelerate skin tissue renovation after transformations.

 

Rose had been so in love with the city and the efficiency of the Researchers that Scorpius joked she would've gladly moved there to work with them and abandoned their team, a little jibe that, from Rose's wistful expression, didn't seem to hit too far from the mark.

 

After Sofia, they had gone to Plovdiv for three weeks, Silistra for two and Varna for another three. They'd visited the Srebarna Nature Reserve, where Rose had collected new kinds of herbs to experiment with. Scorpius had taken her to visit one of the Thracian tombs, and Rose made him taste all kinds of Banitsa, the Bulgarian's most popular pastry.

 

Their last stop had been in Vratsa, where they'd stayed for another three weeks, working alongside Petar Grozdeva and his group of world-renowned Magizoologists, Potioneers and Healers. They had been away from home for almost three months, and Rose's wedding was looming alarmingly closer, though they seemed to discuss it, and her relationship with William, less and less.

 

"I can't believe we're going back," she said on their last night in the country. They were sitting at the hotel's bar, sipping a Bulgarian Pamid wine.

 

"This whole trip felt completely surreal, like something straight out of someone else’s life. Don't you think, Scorpius? Didn’t this time passed alarmingly fast, almost like a dream?”

 

"A good dream?" Scorpius joked, already guessing her answer.

 

"A great dream." The smile on her lovely face left no room for doubt, and Scorpius tried not to focus on the part about how they were leaving so soon but instead on the fact that they had gotten to stay there for this long.

 

"I'm going to miss this crazy food and their crazy language, the beautiful place we’ve visited and all the things we’ve learned." Rose’s smile was subdued, and it did something to his heart, seeing her like this. Wistful. Sad. Beautiful. so very beautiful, in every possible way, inside and out.

 

 "You've been awfully quiet," she pointed out curiously. "Tell me: what will you miss the most once we get back?"

 

 _You_ , he thought, but said nothing. There was something lodged in his throat.

 

"Well?” She pouted, and he laughed, because no matter what happened, she was still a brat. He just had learned she was a lovable one. "Stop being broody and just talk to me. Tell me anything. Tell me your most guarded secret."

 

"Are you sure?" His heart was hammering on his chest, so loud she must’ve been hearing from across the table, he was sure of it.

 

"Which part of me begging you to tell me sounded hesitant?"

 

"That was you begging?" She scowled and he chuckled before continuing. "Okay, I'll tell you, but you have to remember you asked for it."

 

"Just tell me, Malfoy."

 

"You," he said, and then it was out there. Now there was nothing he could say to take it back. He didn’t wanted to. She knew now, and it was her turn to say something. Maybe this time they would finally get it right.

 

"You'll miss me?" She looked at him wide-eyed and trusting, completely innocent to his meaning. "But I'll still be here."

 

"Rose..."

 

"I don't get it, Scorpius. You'll miss me, but I won't be away."

 

"Rose –"

 

"You were stalling, weren't you? You just didn't want to tell–"

 

"Rose!"

 

She finally shut up.

 

"You can be very unobservant, for such a smart girl." She narrowed her eyes at him. "I'll miss you because, once we're back, I won't get to have you all to myself. Here, you were my Rose. Once we're back, you'll be the world's Rose. And you'll go back to being William's Rose, the future Mrs. Mackenzie."

 

The words felt like poison on his tongue.

 

"I'll lose you forever. That's why you’re the thing that I'll miss the most about this trip... I guess you could say I'm in love with you, Weasley."

 

He gave a nervous laugh, avoiding her eyes.

 

"I have been for a long time. And I was just wondering... wondering if maybe I wasn't crazy, and I hadn't build up something in my head that wasn't there, because I was sure that you felt it too, didn't you?"

 

"That night in the Traipsing Trolls? Or when you first took me to The Burrow? Or even back at Hogwarts? You loved me back, didn't you, Rose?"

_Please say that you did. That you do._

She just looked at him for the longest time, her expression giving nothing away.

 

"I did," she finally admitted. "I do... I'm so in love with you it's ridiculous how I hadn't realized it before." He offered her a smile, but her expression didn't invite his touch, as badly as he wanted to kiss her lips, feel the warmth of her skin under his fingertips. "But now it's too late," she finished, with a sad and wistful smile. “I’m made a promise to Will, and I can’t break it. I can’t hurt him like this.”

 

They sat in silence as they drank the rest of their wine, avoiding each other's eyes and trying to figure out how they'd made such a mess out of their lives in the first place, when it was there the whole time, when it should’ve been so easy to figure out if they both hadn’t been so stubborn to admit it.

 

*~*

 

They went back to England, and life returned to a semblance of normal. Everything, however, was far from normal, because Rose was still about to marry Mackenzie despite the fact that she finally knew where they stood.

 

That knowledge hung like a dark cloud above their heads. Everyone introduced and shared their acquired knowledge, adding it to the group's research, and there were small but significant breakthroughs.

 

Not significant enough for the Board feel the need to extend the duration of their research under the Lupine Disease Grant, though. Scorpius couldn't quite comprehend how fast those four years had passed them by, and how he and Rose had gone from people who could barely deal with one another to where they were: two people who were friends, but were in love and couldn't be together.

 

He wondered where his whole life had gone – his plans, his ambition, and the force that had driven him towards success. He barely recognized himself anymore. Rose's wedding was two weeks away, and she was adamant about going through with it, stubbornly claiming she had made a promise to William.

 

Scorpius felt like he was drowning, trying hard to stay afloat. When they surrendered the grant, two months earlier than intended, Scorpius packed his bags and moved to his maternal grandparents' old house in Dover. To him it felt like conceding defeat, like the right thing to do, even though it killed him.

 

*~*

 

Rose made it into the dress. It wasn't until she saw herself tucked into the magnificent gown, supposedly looking radiant and beautiful and every other thing a bride is supposed to look, but feeling miserable, that Rose realized the enormity of the mistake she would be making if she married William Mackenzie.

 

She knew he didn't deserve this, not seconds away from the altar – she also knew she'd had every chance to change her mind, and yet she hadn't been able to do it until the last possible moment. Rose hated herself for doing it now, but she knew she would hate herself far more if she went along with this facade.

 

When she told Will the news, she could swear she saw him breathe out a huge sigh of relief. They hugged, and she gave his ring back. They danced at their wedding as friends, and enjoyed their reception as people who have shared a big part of their lives but weren't in love with each other anymore, but rather with the idea of one another.

 

It was when the party was over and she took off her wedding gown, no longer a bride, but still not a wife, that Rose decided to do something for herself. She applied to a job in Bulgaria with Raina Kristeva.

 

*~*

 

When he returned to work at St. Mungo's as a Healer - no longer a scientist, as Scorpius reminded himself every day - he still half-heartedly experimented with Wolfsbane once in a while, more out of habit than anything else.

 

He also heard something from time to time about Rose. At first, there were some interns at the cafeteria, gushing over how she’d gotten that job in Sofia, and how her research team was the most promising team of scientists ever put together. Then he heard something about her getting engaged to a former Quidditch star player, but those turned out to be just rumours.

 

Eventually, he heard people talking about her returning to England, assembling something of her own. Those were the kind of stories that made his stomach lurch, but after three months and no sign of her, Scorpius could only conclude that they must have been false as well. That is, until she showed up on his doorstep, her face flushed from standing in the winter cold, her hair curled around her shoulders, her sweater knitted with little pink roses.

 

Scorpius thought she was a hallucination, but then figured that any hallucination he would have of Rose would never include such a ridiculous sweater. So he let her inside his flat, his expression giving nothing away – not the way she seemed to light up the room, or how his hands longed to touch her, to hold her and never let her go again.

 

"My Grandma made it for me this Christmas." She passed this off as a form of greeting, noticing his aversion to the bulky jumper she was wearing. "She baked you one of her special apple tarts, too, but she wants you to go down there and visit before she'll give it up. She really misses you, you know," she said, looking at him expectantly.

 

He’d missed her. He truly did. But Scorpius was also sick of playing by her rules, so instead of opening up his arms and pretending like the past year and a half hadn’t happened, he just stared at her in response. He ached to hold her, to finally kiss her lips and learn what they tasted like, to make love to the woman he'd wanted for so long but somehow never snared. But somehow, he felt like they had to straighten out this thing between them, whatever it was.

 

"Not enough, huh?" It was her turn to laugh nervously. "How about something along the lines like 'Scorpius, I love you, and I can't bear to live without you'?"

 

"Rose..."

 

"That's too corny, right?" She sat down on his sofa without any invitation, twisting her hands in her lap. It was a gesture so completely Rose that he chuckled, his own hands wanting to reach out and still that nervousness of hers.

 

"What if I said ' _Everything was shite, and even though the work was great, it meant nothing because you weren't there, and I missed you like hell, even missed you annoying me but encouraging me every step of the way'_?"

 

"Rose –"

 

"No? Yes, you're right. Too dramatic, right? Then what if I told you that I managed to steal Raina and her team away to work at St. Mungo's, and that we're close to a cure, but we need your expertise, and they want you, only you, to work on the team as well? Would that work?"

 

"Rose!"

 

"Look, I just need you to forgive me, all right? Because everything I said, it’s true okay? I do love you, Scorpius. I love, love, love, love you. And I got us a chance to work together again, to get it right – the cure and us. So I would, as you often say, 'greatly appreciate it' if we cut right through the groveling part to the moment where you kiss me senseless. Do you think we can do that?"

 

She was looking at him as though the existence of the entire human race depended on the next words that would leave his lips. Scorpius was suddenly very nervous and highly aware of Rose's presence. Her scent was inviting, and she looked as beautiful as ever, inside and out. Of course he forgave her. How could he not, when she was the only person able to mess him up and put him back together with only a smile? When she understood him and challenged him and believed in him like nobody had done before? She drove him crazy, but it was worth it. It was all worth it, and he would never doubt it again.

 

He thought, _if I say anything, I'll just botch things up_. So he finally leaned down and kissed her. It was gentle and passionate at first, before turning desperate and bruising. It was everything at once – pleasure and pain, hurt and confusion, love and acceptance without questions, his whole history with Rose.

 

It didn't matter in that moment if they would have the three children she'd always wanted, or whether they'd make it into bed or even find the cure to Lycanthropy. What really mattered was that, finally, they were in the same place, at the same time. They didn’t had a lot of things in common, and they fought more than anything, but they wanted each other, and were determined enough to fight for them. They would get it right. They would get everything.

 

*~*

 

Author's Note: So I’ve edited some parts of it, but I’m still mostly satisfied with this story. Don’t forget to drop a word, I would love some feedback :)

**Author's Note:**

> Written at 2009 for Morrigane13 at the Rose and Scorpius fic-a-fest at livejournal


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